Having released their viewing figures for yesterday's All-Ireland final decider, RTÉ confirmed that Dublin's narrow victory over Mayo was the most watched television event of the year so far.
With peak viewership arriving at the moment Dean Rock's late free-kick sealed Dublin's third-successive All-Ireland, slightly more than 1.3 million people were watching.
Incredibly, 80.65% of people in watching television in Ireland yesterday afternoon were tuned into The Sunday Game Live.
Two weeks ago, RTÉ posted similarly impressive viewing figures for the hurling decider; 1.1 million witnessed Galway finally reclaim the Liam MacCarthy on September 3rd.
A shared trend visible in today's ratings and those of the hurling final is the growth in numbers of those who watched via the RTÉ Player:
Yesterday's decider also saw the highest volume of live streams for any football final ever on the RTÉ Player and the strongest volume of live streams for any Sunday Game Live programme ever.
The hurling final set a similar record amongst its precursors.
Although All-Ireland finals in both football and hurling always tend to be amongst the year's most-watched broadcasts, these latest figures represent the highest level of viewership for any of Dublin's 3-in-a-row finals.
Having played Mayo in last year's All-Ireland final (and replay), this year's average viewership of 1,137,500 far surpassed the 927,800 and 843,500 that last year's final and replay set respectively.
Comparatively, neither the 2016 final or replay came close to hitting the 80.65% share RTÉ reported for yesterday's decider.
RTÉ may well be wondering how they could manufacture such consuming events on a more regular basis.
See Also: Cillian O'Connor's Inspirational Speech Is Exactly Why Mayo Will Rise Again
